Listed below and incorporated herein are various patents and published patent applications. The contents of each of these patents and published patent applications are hereby incorporated herein by reference in their entireties, and various technical details disclosed therein may optionally be used to implement various aspects of the present system and method as will be apparent to persons of skill in the art.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,611,738 B2 describes a general purpose mobile device, whose navigation is based on GPS. A movement teach-in is disclosed based on the GPS data, where a teach-in is a technique in the field of robotics for teaching a robot to mimic a certain sequence of motor commands or motor positions by moving a robot manually or by means of a remote control. The user can give additional information about the working area, like the position of a newly planted tree. However, training and improving of the mower's visual obstacle detection by the user is not possible.
WO 2010/077198 describes an autonomous robotic lawn mower and a method for establishing a wireless communication link between the lawn mower and a user. A border-wire-based robotic mower is disclosed and is able to communicate with a cellular network structure. The mower can inform the user when the mower detects a “situation”. The user can send back an acknowledgement signal or a message. However, no information for clarification of an uncertain detection result or for improving a classifier installed in the mower software is mentioned. The user is not able to improve the classifier, and also different obstacles cannot trigger different behaviors of the mower.
US 2010/0324731 A1 describes a method for establishing a desired area of confinement for an autonomous robot, and an autonomous robot implementing a control system for executing the same. An already known method of movement teach-in for acquiring a user-defined perimeter is described. Further, an interaction between a user and the mower via a smart phone (or similar devices) is disclosed. First, a map generated by means of perimeter information can be displayed on the smart phone. Second, the mower may be remotely controlled via the smart phone. Third, the base station may act as a communication gateway between smart phone and mower.
The problem of locating mobile platforms or robots simply and effectively has been attempted and partially solved by many different approaches. The techniques include dead reckoning, heading, ground-based RF beacons, and the GPS system. Time-of-flight (TOF) systems using audio, ultrasonic, and laser-based components have been used. Inertial navigation, active beam navigation systems, and optical positioning systems are used with triangulation and trilateration methods. Also landmark navigation with natural and artificial landmarks with visioning systems have been used.
Local positioning systems are known in the art. U.S. Pat. No. 5,974,347 (1999) describes an automatic location system using three radio frequency (RF) transmitters to define circle equations which are solved simultaneously to determine the location of the mower. This approach requires accurate rotation control of a loop antenna and suffers from RF reflections that cause errors in measuring the angles used in the calculations. Also the transmitters had to have separate frequencies to identify them, and the figure-8 pattern of the directional antenna necessitated a sequencing circuit to verify sequences of the nulls received.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,009,358 to Angott, et al. (1999) describes a programmable lawn mower using coded RF and audio signals. Coded signals are sent from the carriage or vehicle to each of the locating transmitters which send an acknowledgement, requiring a processor for codification and identification, adding to the complexity of the system. The signals from locating transmitters are continuous signals that may have interference from reflections from objects in the area causing errors and malfunctions. Further, the use of two microphones closely spaced on the vehicle to give angular position relative to the locating transmitter is not as accurate as utilizing a given greater distance between two locating transmitters.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,940,346 to Sadowski et al. (1996) describes a modular robotic platform with an acoustic navigation system. It requires three or more beacons, different RF frequencies per each beacon, a pseudo-noise generator, continuous wave acoustic signals, uses pulse modulation of the RF signal, requires advanced beacon design for accurate detection of the acoustic signal. It also suffers from Doppler frequency shift of the acoustic signal that must be taken into account.
A method of using acoustical signals to measure distance is given by Highfill in U.S. Pat. No. 6,590,834 (2003). This is applied to measuring the location of a rover carried by an individual in making surveying measurements in wooded areas. The method of determining distance uses an RF and an acoustic transmitter on the rover to transmit pulses to an array of receiver pods. Multiple pods are required to acquire data to be able to calculate the position of the rover.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,445,344 to Wise, et al. (2002), describes a local area positioning system utilizing multiple platforms in communication with each other in a local area network. It is similar to a global positioning system but on a more limited space providing three dimensional location of sensor platforms such as aircraft which would be an expensive, complex, and cumbersome system if applied to small moving vehicles such as an automated lawn mower.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,674,687 to Zeitzew (2004), uses a system and method for navigation using two-way ultrasonic positioning. However, the RF and ultrasonic signals are encoded and the two-way travel of the ultrasonic signal adds to the complexity of the system. The use of ultrasonic frequencies also has more attenuation in the air than lower audio frequencies.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,157,592 to Kriz, et al. (2000), discloses a three dimensional acoustic position determining system. It requires at least three transmitters, each coded for identification, and also requires a synchronization signal. The application is for determining the position of a receiver mounted on a person or object.
A method of measuring azimuth and distances from a moving platform and stationary reflectors is proposed by Noji, et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 5,011,288 (1991). The angle between adjacent reflectors is measured to calculate the azimuth.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,995,708 to Schmidt (2006) describes a local positioning system to locate a cell phone user by sniffing earth based media and using bluetooth standards and GPS. Another system to locate a person with a cell phone is given in U.S. Pat. No. 6,748,224 to Chen, et al. (2004) describing a software implementation of a local positioning system It uses the radio propagation parameters in the CDMA and TDMA links of a cell phone system to establish the position of a digital cell phone.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,255,793 to Peless et al. (2001) describes a navigation method for autonomous machines using proximity sensors and markers defining a perimeter of the working area.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,956,250 to Gudat et al. (1999) describes a vehicle navigation system using VPS, GPS, and MPS. It includes accelerometers, gyros, odometers and Kalman filters.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,758,298 to Guldner (1998) describes an autonomous navigation system for a mobile robot or manipulator and guides a robot to a predetermined point, for a transport or cleaning system. It uses a robot coordinate system for collision avoidance.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,495,427 to Puma et al. (1996) describes an ultrasonic position and orientation tracking system for monitoring articles in close proximity such as a pilot's helmet in a cockpit.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,393,360 to Ma (2002) describes a system for locating and directing a vehicle such as an automobile. It is a local positioning system assisting a driver in reaching their destination.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,955,973 to Anderson (1999) describes a field navigation system for navigating a farm vehicle in an agricultural field using a GPS system.
Local positioning apparatuses or systems described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,904,725 to Iisaka (1999), and U.S. Pat. No. 6,493,458 to Yasui, et al. (2002) relate to determining the position of a vehicle in traffic and traffic safety.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,556,942 to Smith (2003) shows a short range indoor radiolocation system allowing the location of an item provided with an RF tag.
In addition to the foregoing patents and published patent applications, additional patents and published patent applications were also incorporated by reference in their entireties into the provisional patent application on which this application is based, U.S. Patent Application No. 62/056,470, and all the patents and published patent applications incorporated therein are likewise incorporated herein by reference and incorporation.
The contents of each of the documents referred to in each of the paragraphs above are hereby incorporated herein by reference in their entireties. While numerous systems have been disclosed, they all have drawbacks and limitations, and there exists a need for an improved intelligent control apparatus, system, and method of use.